It’s no secret that things are different after the coronavirus has become a national pandemic. With COVID-19 running rampant across the world every industry is changing. The gaming industry is no different. Games have taken a steep decline including major game releases being delayed indefinitely due to halted production and game stores having to close shop or adopt non-contact shopping.

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the coronavirus as a pandemic and with it began a series of events that led to the shutting down of businesses. A gaming shops were one of the first to go, but some adapted with curbside delivery.

Gamestop is one of the biggest gaming retail chains in the world with 8.285 billion earned in revenue for the year of 2019. They were also one of the few retail chains to show resistance to the mandatory shut down of nonessential businesses.

In a statement obtained by Kotaku, Gamestop claimed that they are an essential business due to selling items required to work from home and that if local law enforcement showed up to provide a document given by Gamestop that claims they don’t have to close due to them providing essential products. After community backlash Gamestop later changed their status and are now only open for curbside pickup.

In the Knoxville, TN area most used game stores are open with curbside pickup such with in store tournaments being put on hold. Some shops like Turn 1 Gaming in Oak Ridge are making their tournaments still available, but done digitally such as the weekly Friday Night Magic the Gathering tournaments to keep people entertained during the statewide stay at home order which has recently been extended until April 30th.

Another store in Oak Ridge called Secret City Exchange has reduced their hours, but still provide their services of repairing phones and fixing consoles. You can call ahead too and receive and item that they have in stock. Some stores are remaining open, but reducing the amount of people that enter the store to lower the risk of contracting the coronavirus. Most used game shops are doing something similar to this, but none of them are using cash as a way to pay. You must pay for items or services with a credit or debit card.

Some stores have had to close completely such as Mckay’s Used Books CDs DVDs and More. With the sale of used products used stores like Mckay’s face economic hardships. Most are closing to insure the safety of the public and decreasing the amount of people contracting this deadly virus.

With the closing of stores the amount of people filing for unemployment has risen to unprecedented levels with over 6.6 million people applying for unemployment within the last week alone. This is the highest number of people filing for unemployment ever. The world faces new challenges and will forever be changed by this event.